The Grand Performance
by Stargazer1
Summary: Watercrest High is in trouble, their fine arts are being threatened by the School Board and is forced to put on Cats as their musical. Can the kids a Watercrest show they can put on a good show or will they lose their fine arts for good? Under rewrite
1. The Assembly

**The Grand Performance**

A/N: Hello. This is Stargazer. I felt that this story needed a heavy rewrite and I'm doing it:) I do not own Cats, or anything else in this story other than the people (Not the characters they play in the show) Thank you for your patience while I redo this story :)

**Chapter 1: The Assembly **

-0-

There was a soft click of a telephone receiver. A middle aged woman sat on her couch, her head resting on one of her hands. Her eyes were closed, her mind working and trying to figure out how to get out of her situation that she was put into. The woman opened up her eyes and grabbed her red rimmed glasses. She slipped them upon her face and pushed herself off the couch. She walked to the kitchen and grabbed a cup from the cabinet.

"Violet?" came a voice from behind the woman. Violet turned around and smiled.

"Yes Mark?" she asked, turning back to the sink to fill her glass with water.

"Is everything okay?" asked Mark, walking up behind Violet. She sighed and sat her class down upon the counter top.

"No... I got call from the school board..." she said. Mark wrapped his arms around his wife's waist and put his chin upon her shoulder.

"And? What did they say?" he questioned. He was a little scared, he felt he knew what it was about, but he didn't want to say anything or make her feel bad about whatever it was.

"It's about..."

"What do you mean we have to cut the music and theatre department?" asked Mrs Bell, standing up from her seat. There was an outburst of murmurs from the teachers in the room. Violet rubbed her head as the murmurs got louder and soon there were several people talking to her at once.

"Principal Williams, please, why must we have these departments cut?" asked Camille Davis.

"Funding... The state is taking away our funding because of the recent election." explained Violet.

"Can't we raise taxes? Go for a tax levy?" asked James Carlton, one of the math teachers.

"We don't have enough support in this community. We are small, and more than half the population are actually people forty and over. Our high school's population is only five hundred. More than half play sports, and only two percent of the sport players also participates in the fine arts. Our band is small and our choir is small. Our theatre department is a nice size, thirty children, but still.. thirty students compared to the four hundred and seventy students left in the school." explained Violet, sitting down at the long table.

"What about the art classes?" asked Janice Ludwig, the German teacher.

"What art classes? No one is interested in art here... All I have is a intro to art that all students must take and a drawing one class with the most children I ever had was ten students... The rest of the time I teach study hall..." explained Robert Wallace. Violet put her head in her hands.

"Isn't there a way we can save our departments? There must be some way," said Mrs. Bell, walking towards Violet.

"If we can show the government that we need that money, that we have the talent to keep our programs going strong, then they'd consider it... But we must raise so much money with a show... They want a show for it combines both singing, acting, playing and artistic work... Its the best way to raise money..."explained Violet. The room became quiet, the situation finally really sinking into the group of teachers. Mrs. Bell sat down and looked at Violet.

"Do you have a show picked out already?"

-0-

The students shuffled into the gym, several students rubbing their eyes. It was the first Monday of the month, and it meant the monthly assembly. It was always a boring one, even though they got to miss most of their first period that day, which a lot were thankful for. They all made their way to the bleachers, and waited for the principal to announce upcoming events, award points to the grades that have been doing good work, take away points for students being bad, and to give them all a ponderable before they left for class. The month before she had asked "Is a zebra white with black stripes, or black with white stripes?" Quite a few students never payed attention to the statement, but several students did and most of the freshman were walking around asking themselves, _what is a zebra? Black or white?_ The students quieted down when they saw Principal Williams step up to the microphone up on the stage on the other side of the gym. Violet put on a fake smile and began to speak.

"Good morning Watercrest, I hope you are enjoying the year so far. I know it will be one you will never forget. Before I can get to the upcoming events and the ponderable today, I must discuss something that is very important and will effect everyone here for the upcoming year." Violet stopped, for she knew there were be several whispers would be started. She was was right. Several students looked at each other and began to whisper as quietly as they could. They were confused. Were they getting a new principal? Were they getting a new building? They really needed a new building, for the high school had no air conditioning and they needed a new choir and band room, both of them were falling apart some. Violet coughed a bit and the students quieted down.

"Now, I know this school is big into sports, and we all know that most of you are involved in sports. The other population of the school is in the fine arts, there is rarely anyone who doesn't do something here at Watercrest, even though there are the occasional independent student. I am proud to say... our sports teams do rather well, our cross country team always goes to state, and usually brings back one winner, our football team has several district titles, and the government sees that. What it does not see... is the fine arts," explained Violet, removing the microphone from the stand. Before whispers could be started up, Violet continued. "The government has decided to cut our funding to the school, and this means that we must make cuts... I've been trying to reason with them and the student board on how we could go about this, on how we might be able to get our funding back. The school board says we are wasting our money that we give our fine arts classes, saying that nothing comes from them. We have a decent choir, but no one looks at choirs. Our band... well, our band is good for what it can be. Our art, is special for the few people who do it and our theatre is fine... The board does not see this, they just see things that do not turn up money and say that they are cutting that funding. I told them that we could do something, something to show them that we can make money with these art forms, all art forms; dancing, singing, painting, playing, acting, all of these we can do within a musical. The board laughed, asking us how we could pull off a musical. They said that last year, the Wizard of Oz was terrible. I explained to her that it was not our fault that half the cast came down with strep throat and you could not understand them half the time... They didn't care. They want us to put the money to new uniforms for all the sports teams even though we just got new uniforms two years ago for the majority of the teams.

"This is why I had to tell you this before I could announce the upcoming events. There will be auditions for the spring musical soon. The board said that if we were going to do a musical, they were going to pick it. I told them that the theatre teacher should pick it but they refused. We are in the middle of getting the rights to it... for it did just get released..." The soft whispers that were going through the crowd of students that started when she announced the cutting of the fine arts grew louder. Several people shouted out saying various things like _They can't do that; I have a friend who does fine arts; My sister does art and she'll be here next year; What is the musical. _All these questions hit Violet hard and she had to hold up her hands to get the room quiet.

"Please students... please be quiet and I will tell you what is going to happen for the musical. I must say, that it devastated me when they told me the musical they wanted. I tried to talk them out of it, I really did, but it couldn't be helped. They said if we wanted to make money we had to do a big show, one that would put butts in the seats. With the release of this show, they said it would guarantee butts. I told them that it was a difficult show, that it would require a lot of time... They told me to get on it."

"Will you please tell us the musical already?" shouted someone from the crowd. Violet made a small little smile.

"Mr. Johnson, I never thought that a football player would ever want to know the name of a musical so bad." There was a small little laugh that went through the students. "The musical is Cats." A large groan went through the student body. The thought of the musical itself made half the students want to get up and leave. Out of all the shows that they could have picked, they picked the one that was hard, physically challenging, and basically nothing but singing. Violet knew this, and knew that with this show not many people would audition... She prayed that they would get enough students to audition and to make the show happen... She wanted to keep the fine arts... she couldn't lose them here at the school she ran like the school that she went to. She just couldn't lose them.


	2. The New Cat In Town

**Chapter 2: The New Cat In Town**

-0-

_Where is it?_ A female walked up and down the hallways, a confused look upon her face. She looked left, then she looked right and she let out a whimper. _Blue walls, blue tiles... everything looks the same..._ The red haired blue eyed female looked at her schedule again. She bit her lip, panic raising up in her. She was lost on her first day, and also late to boot. She ran her hand through her hair, looking around. She took a left instead of a right and walked around, looking at the numbers on the doors. She smiled when she finally came upon room 101. She looked up and, on a gold name plate with bold black letters, read _**Choir Room**_. She grabbed the handle and opened the door slowly.

Heads looked over at her, curious looks all over their faces. The girl smiled a little and looked at her schedule. She was sure she was during the right period... yet the students weren't singing. They weren't doing anything at all... there wasn't even a teacher at the front of the room. A confused look came upon her face and looked at the students. It was a small choir.. maybe thirty people at the most were in the room. She wasn't used to this, she was used to hundred plus choirs. She bit her lip and finally spoke.

"Is this second period choir class?" she asked, her voice timid and quiet.

"Yes," said a male voice. She noticed as a young looking man with dirty blonde hair and green eyes approached her. She noticed he was taller than her and freckles dotted his face. He smiled. "Do you need something?" he asked. The girl fumbled with her paper as she tried to avert her eyes. Her eyes landed upon his lanyard and his identification card. It had a blue dot. She began to go through the colors in her head. Yellow was freshman, blue was sophomore, green was junior and red was senior. He was a sophomore. "Um hello, earth to the new girl," She looked up at him startled

"Where can I find..." she looked at her paper, "Mrs. Smith?" The boy smiled and pointed to the right. She looked and noticed a middle aged blonde woman in the office to the right. "Thank you," she said softly and walked to the door. She could feel the boy who she talked to walk behind her to go back to the risers. The girl knocked on the door and she heard a soft _Come in._

She opened the door and walked in. She shut it softly and looked at Mrs. Smith.

"How may I help you dear?" asked Mrs. Smith. Her voice was quiet, no emotion behind her voice at all. The girl fumbled with the papers in her hand and walked over to Mrs. Smith.

"Hello Mrs. Smith, my name is Kara Fitsim. I just moved here and today is my first day," explained Kara, fumbling over words and her voice quivered. She was nervous, but she didn't know why.

"Nice to meet you dear. Please, don't give me any papers at the moment, I'm not really myself today.. I might lose it." explained Mrs. Smith. Kara let out a soft _oh, okay_ and put the papers into the folder that she pulled from her bag. "May I ask what part you sing my dear?" Kara looked at Mrs. Smith and smiled a little.

"I sing first soprano ma'am," Mrs. Smith gave a little huff.

"If you do, the way you talk makes it seem you don't carry your part," Kara was a bit taken back by the comment. She wasn't the strongest singer, but she thought she had a pretty decent voice.

"I can't carry myself as well as most people can, but I assure you I can sing the part," said Kara, her voice not as light and shy as it had been moments before. Mrs. Smith smiled to herself.

"I know. Please, go have a seat, I will be out there as soon as I can." explained Mrs. Smith. Kara nodded and turned and walked out of the office.

Kara walked towards the risers, her head cast down. She felt eyes looking at her and it made her uncomfortable. It made her feel like how she felt at her old school, before they moved. Kara looked up and found a spot at the end of the top riser next to a chestnut colored hair female. Kara smiled a shy smile and asked, "May I sit here?" The girl looked up and nodded.

"Go ahead tyke, I'm not stopping you," Kara let out a soft and nervous laugh and sat next to the girl. Kara began to twiddle her thumbs and stole a glance at the color of the lanyard that the girl next to her wore. Red. She was a senior. Kara coughed a little and looked at the girl.

"Does Mrs. Smith act like that all the time?" she asked, trying to make small talk. Everyone in the room were in their own little conversations, but the girl next to her just seemed to stare off into space. She looked at her and shook her head.

"No, never until the beginning of this week. Did you just transfer into this class because of the situation? I've never seen you before..." said the girl. Kara was confused. Situation?

"Um... I just moved here and this is my first day. What do you mean, situation?" questioned Kara. The girl gave a little smile and let out an _ahhh_, finally figuring out what was going on.

"Ah, so you're new. Well, you probably should have stayed at your old school. We're in a bit of a crunch for cash and the School Board has decided to pull the fine art classes if we don't shape up. They say that we make no money for our school, but we take up a lot of it. It's kind of true... The band and choir concerts are free and we only have one show a year, which is usually a musical. Last year was a bad year for us, we ran into several bad situations for our show and it left us in debt basically and we had to pull money from the school to pay the royalties for the show. It was pretty bad..." explained the girl. Kara looked at her.

"They are pulling the fine art classes next year?" Kara spat, not fully understanding what she heard. "Can't you put up a tax increase to help with funding?" questioned Kara, curious on why they would have to cut the classes.

"We have no support from this town, its basically the parents who come see the shows... The town would care. Word did get out though, and several people are angry, but nothing that can produce big turn outs... Oh, look at me rambling on and I have yet to introduce myself! I'm Kerri Vesta, my name means dark and mysterious... I kinda like it. How about you?" Kara blushed a bit.

"Um... my name is Kara Fitsim... I don't know what my name means, sorry." said Kara shyly. Kerri let out a heartful laugh and grinned.

"Its alright," Kerri grinned and Kara smiled back shyly.

Time went by slowly, Kara's mind darting between questions on her head. Kerri was now talking to a girl to her left, forgetting that she was there. Kara doodled on her folder, her eyes glancing over at the office door. The bell rang, taking Kara by surprise. She watched as Mrs. Smith left her office then the room. Kara looked at her schedule... It was Drama I in the choir room as well. She looked behind her and noticed that no one moved, they just continued with their conversation and no one walked in. She tapped Kerri on the shoulder and Kerri looked at her. It took her a second to recognize Kara's face but then smiled.

"The choir class is the drama class... Once the announcement was made, everyone really interested in doing the musical changed their schedules so that we could use second and third period to rehearse the show for we know we are going to need to time," explained Kerri. Kara was about to ask what the musical was, but the door opened and Kara looked to see who it was. A female with short blonde hair walked into the room. There was a bounce in her step and a smile upon her face.

"Good morning class!" she cooed, making her way to the piano. She sat her folder on top of the piano, it opened and her pencil going down the list. Her crystal blue eyes landed upon Kara and smiled.

"Why, we have a new person in this room. Why, stand up and introduce yourself!" cooed the teacher. Kara coughed softly and stood up. She turned to look at the class and gave a shy smile.

"Um.. Hello. My name is Kara Fitsim and I just moved here from Troy, the neighboring town. It is very nice to be here," said Kara, looking at everyone then looking at the teacher.

"Hello Kara! I am Camille Davis. Please, call me Camille, I hate being called Miss Davis, I feel too old and that isn't a fun feeling," cooed Camille, a big smile upon her face. Kara took her seat and looked at her hand.

"All right kids. As you know, we have auditions for the musical tomorrow after school and all of you better have your music memorized. Now, to get us into the mind set for tomorrow, I would like you all to get up and spread around the room and get ready to be slinking around the room like a cat," explained Camille. Kara got up but was a little confused. A cat? Why would they act like a cat?

"Um... Miss Da..."

"Camille."

"Camille... Why are we acting like cats? I don't understand." said Kara. Camille smiled.

"We are being forced to do Cats for the musical this year." explained Camille. Kara began to get butterflies in her stomach. Cats? They were doing Cats?

"Are we going to have the extra characters, like Admetus and Electra? Are we using Broadway or London names?" asked Kara, excitement running through her. Camille smiled and put her hands together.

"We will have London characters and Exotica, but they will be named as chorus cats for we technically do not have the rights to them... The names will be Broadway, now please Kara, get on all fours and meow like a good little pussy cat." said Camille.

The bell rang and Kara laid upon her back. She felt tired, either feeling like she was a cat or maybe it was all the crunches she seemed to have done while she acted like a cat. She sat up slowly and crawled over to the risers. She grabbed her paper and looked at it. She was a little confused, all it said was lunch.

"We have a forty five minute lunch break. Come on, you can eat with me and a couple of the others," said Kerri, grabbing her bag.

"Okay," said Kara, happy that she wouldn't have to eat alone.

Kerri and Kara walked outside and Kara was surprised. When she had arrived she hadn't had time to look around the school yard, but not she was seeing that there was a small courtyard surrounded by the school. The area was big and there were several trees and picnic benches. Living in Florida always had its perks, and having really only two seasons, Spring and Summer, played to their favor.

"Hurry up kid," said Kerri. Kara broke away from the scenery and followed Kerri. Kerri made her way to one of the shade trees where there were at least three other people there.

"He's freakin hot Amber," said the blonde, looking at her auburn haired friend. Amber shook her head.

"Sarah, sweetheart, he's not cute. You need to check your eyes." Sarah swat Amber on the arm and glared at her. "Besides, he's only here to fix things, he's a college student Sarah," Sarah smiled.

"I know, that is why I think he's freakin hot," cooed Sarah, taking a drink of her water.

"You two are so fun to watch," said the sandy haired male who sat to the left of Amber.

"Hush Andrew, just because we aren't talking about your ass doesn't mean you can tease us," said Sarah, glancing at Andrew. Andrew stuck out his tongue.

"Love you too Sarah." Andrew said.

"Who's ass are we talking about? If it's Andrew's, then we should talk about another one," said Kerri, sitting down next to Andrew.

"Oh ha ha, not like you've talked about my ass. I have about yours," said Andrew, winking at Kerri. Kerri swatted the boy and laughed.

"He's telling the truth," said Sarah, trying to balance her spoon on her nose. "He was talking about it in the boys locker room yesterday to Tony." Andrew looked at her.

"What are you talking about?" he stuttered. His face turned slightly pink. Kerri grinned and punched Andrew on the arm.

"Knew you couldn't get my ass out of your mind," she said, bitting into her sandwich. Kara sat the entire time, listening to the whole conversation. She nibbled her sandwich, feeling like an out cast. She liked the feeling sitting with a group of people, but she wasn't in the conversation and so she felt the same as if she was sitting by herself.

"Are you being ignored?" came a voice that seemed like it was right next to her. She whirled her head around and noticed the same eyes that had first stared at her when she walked into choir.

"Hi," she said, startled. The dirty blonde boy smiled and pulled out a sandwich.

"I didn't introduce myself earlier today, I am Cody, Cody Laven. It's nice to meet you Kara," he said, a gentleness to his voice. Kara smiled, he seemed like a nice boy.

"Hi Cody! When did you are the new girl get here?" asked Amber, bitting her chip. Cody grinned.

"I just got here, the new girl, aka Kara, has been here for a while I believe... I saw her just sitting here while you were talking about something..."

"We were talking about how Andrew is in love with Kerri's ass," said Sarah nonchalantly as she put her spoon on her head. Cody smiled.

"About Kerri's butt, and I figured she felt left out. You should probably try to let her into your conversations," explained Cody, a smile upon his face. Kara's face turned red. She felt a little bit embarrassed, but felt greatful for Cody.

"I'm okay, I had no problem just listening to the conversation, really," Kara said, stumbling over a few of her words. Cody gave Kara a gentle smile.

"Of course." he said and went back to eating his lunch.

"So tyke, what made you move here?" asked Kerri. Kara's grip on her sandwich became more forceful than what it was. Cody glanced at her hands then up at her face. Her eyes looked terrified but the look slipped away and she gave a small smile.

"We needed a change of scenery," explained Kara. Andrew cocked an eyebrow.

"That's strange... You just came from Troy and thats like, right next to here," explained Andrew. Kara smiled again.

"Believe me, its a nice change of scenery for me and my family," she explained, biting into her sandwich. The conversation died down as they all ate their lunch and soon the bell rang for the start of fifth period. Kara got up and threw her trash away and made her way to her science class. She would have to talk to her father that night about what was going on at school... about the cutting of fine art classes... She couldn't let that happen.

-0-

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter, if you remembered the old chapter, I have changed a lot. I will be changing a lot to this story for I just now noticed how horrible it was... and how Mary-Sue ish Kara was... and it made me sick :) I hope I can write this story as fast as I can, even though I doubt I will be able to until summer. Thank you for reading.


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